Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) responded Tuesday to President Donald Trump calling her “crooked as hell” by countering that Trump has a documented record of pardoning and granting clemency to some of the most brazen financial criminals in U.S. history, even as his administration now presents itself as combating fraud. In an op-ed published by The Guardian, Omar catalogued a series of Trump pardons and commutations — naming individuals convicted in health care, investment, and bank fraud schemes — and pointed to what she described as a pattern of selective accountability in which the president’s rhetoric does not match his actions.
The Minnesota Democrat wrote that the Trump administration has created a $1.8 billion fund to compensate individuals who were pardoned after pleading guilty or being convicted for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. She contrasted that with the prosecution of those involved in the Feeding Our Future fraud case in Minnesota, in which dozens of people were charged with exploiting a federal child nutrition program. MSI previously reported on the ongoing legal proceedings related to the fraud probes in Minnesota here.
Omar said she had publicly called for federal investigations into the Feeding Our Future scheme from the moment it came to light and supported prosecutions for everyone involved. She described her own experience of hunger as a child living in a refugee camp as the reason she has fought to ensure children have access to food through Congress.
Writing that “fraud should be rooted out wherever it occurs,” Omar said the perpetrators of the child nutrition program fraud in Minnesota are facing substantial prison time, adding, “That’s what real accountability looks like, not clicks or grandstanding, but putting criminals behind bars and seeking meaningful restitution for the American people.”
Omar specifically identified Trump’s pardon of Philip Esformes, whom the Justice Department at the time described as having committed the “largest health care fraud scheme ever charged.” She also cited clemency for Lawrence Duran after a $205 million fraud conviction; commutations for Jason Galanis and a pardon for Devon Archer, both tied to tens of millions in fraud; and a pardon for Joseph Schwartz for a $38 million fraud scheme.
In her characterization of Trump’s overall record, Omar wrote that Trump has “spent years proving he has been the biggest fraudster our country has ever seen.” She noted that Trump was found liable in a civil fraud case for inflating his assets, that his foundation was dissolved over what prosecutors called a “shocking pattern of illegality,” and that his Trump University operation misled thousands of students.